Blessed are the cheese makers

Obviously it’s not meant to be taken literally; it refers to any manufacturers of dairy products.

I promised and I shall provide.

I got a cheese making kit for Xmas, making cheese is one of my bucket list things. This kit has instructions on how to make ricotta and mozzarella. You just need to add milk, quite a lot of it.

One gallon of milk should make one batch of mozzarella or ricotta, all I have to do is follow the instructions in the kit.

Bugger that, I don’t like mozzarella – I’m going to make Feta – or “feta” seeing as I’ll be using cow milk.

Cheese is basically partially digested milk that’s gone off just the right amount. To help the milk go off I’ve warmed it, added a dollop of cultured buttermilk and let it sit for an hour – the bacteria in the buttermilk will turn the lactose in the milk into lactic acid, that acid improves the activity of the next ingredient.

To do the digesting – which is what makes the milk set we add rennet – formerly a liquid extract from calve’s stomachs, these days it’s usually obtained from a fungus. Rennet is a mixture of enzymes that break down proteins. Things happen fast when you add this stuff – it took just five minutes to set but for it to really firm up it has to be left overnight.

The next morning I’ve got a pan full of curds ( the solid) and whey ( the liquid). I cut the curds into chunks and leave it to rest before straining through a cheese cloth. I thought whey would be kind of watery – it’s not, the texture’s a lot more like saliva – Miss Muffet used to eat this stuff?

Once it’s done draining, the curds need salting – 60g for this batch; they get put back into cheese cloth and loaded into a steamer basket with a couple of dumbell weights on the top ( hereafter known as the cheese press).

Left overnight again I’ve got something actually quiet nice – tangy, creamy and not out of place on toast with a bit of smoked salmon. But I want to turn this into feta so it needs more work – the cheese is cut into chunks and put into saturated brine where it will need stay for at least a week.

Now I just have to find a use for all the left over whey, we’ll come to that next time